Secret
by Death-star510
Summary: Steve always insisted that they keep their relationship secret. Now if only that were as easy as it sounded.


In Tony's defense, he'd only gone up to Steve's room to tell him about the meeting – purely in the interest of being a responsible leader, of course. The fact that their perfectly professional conversation quickly devolved into a make out session was only a completely unintentional (though highly appreciated) bonus for his dedication.

He didn't know how long they ended up spending sprawled out on the bed together and, to be honest, he couldn't be bothered to glance at the clock to check. Being on time to meetings ranked somewhere near the very bottom of his priority list, so far below spending time with Steve that it didn't even warrant consideration.

Unfortunately, Steve seemed to put meetings somewhere higher on the priority list. He broke their kiss, putting a hand on Tony's shoulder to keep him from simply resuming. "The team will be waiting," he said, sounding slightly breathless. "We should get going before they come looking for us."

He made a move to get up and Tony hooked his fingers in the collar of his shirt to tug him back down again. "Hey, we've still got a few minutes. Who's ever on time to the meetings anyway?"

"I'm always on time."

"Exactly, you're the only one. At this point, I think you deserve a break from punctuality. And what better way to do that than to spend a little more time with me?" Steve still looked as if he might protest and Tony pulled him into a short kiss to drive it away. "Consider it an order from your commanding officer, if you want." Steve chuckled softly and pressed a kiss of his own to Tony's lips.

Tony hardly had time to mentally congratulate himself on a job well done when a knock at the door startled them apart again. Clint's voice rang out from the hallway and Tony felt Steve tense against him. "Steve? Mind hurrying it up? Jade Jaws is about to blow a gasket if we don't get started soon and I'm not in the mood to listen to him."

Steve sent him a panicked glance and before he had time to say anything, Tony found himself knocked to the floor on the opposite side of the bed from the door with a blanket thrown over his head. It seemed that methods of hiding boyfriends from prying eyes hadn't changed much since high school. (Honestly, Tony would have preferred to get shoved into the closet, it was far less painful.)

Not that any of this would be an issue if he hadn't agreed to keeping this whole thing a secret. Tony had no issues letting the team know about their relationship, but Steve insisted that it was better to keep them in the dark, at least for the time being. He thought that there would be an impact on team cohesion if it were public knowledge, that it would lead to 'unprofessional behavior'. (Tony didn't know what he was talking about, he was always professional. [Okay, maybe not always, but Steve really shouldn't have looked so damned amused when he made the claim.])

But even if he didn't like it, it made Steve comfortable to keep things a secret. So he stayed quiet and hidden under his blanket, only slightly peeking over the edge of the bed to see what was going on.

Steve straightened himself up hastily and opened the door, trying to block the view of the bed with his body. He greeted Clint in a voice that had to try way too hard to sound calm and Tony couldn't see his expression from this angle, but he could guess that it was strained. (Tony couldn't help but be a little doubtful about Steve's ability to play this off. Lying was not one of Steve's specialties.)

"So, you coming down, or what?" Clint leaned casually against the door frame, crossing his arms.

"I'm sorry, I lost track of time. I'll be down in just a minute." That should have been convincing enough, it wasn't even a lie really. Clint could leave and Tony could sneak out a couple minutes after (it wasn't like anyone would think it was strange that he was late to his own meeting) and no one would know the difference.

Except Clint didn't leave. Instead he craned his neck a little in an attempt to peer into the room. "What was that thump I heard?"

Steve subtly shifted to block Clint's view again. "My shield. I was cleaning it when you knocked and I just got a little startled."

Tony could almost hear Clint's eyebrow cocking. "Right, polishing your shield. Sure." There was a brief pause. "Seen Stark around? I'm supposed to be dragging him in, too."

"Tony?" Steve's voice was sounding strained again. "No, I haven't seen him for a few hours."

"You sure?" Was it just him or did Clint sound like he knew something? "He comes down here a lot." Oh yeah, Clint knew something. Tony cursed to himself. He'd have to lay off the visits a little, until the suspicions died down again at least, if they were going to keep this secret up.

"If I see him, I'll be sure to remind him about the meeting." Steve was really starting to sound tense now.

Luckily, Clint seemed to be done with his questioning. There was a slight suspicious tone in his, "Right," and Tony didn't have to see his face to know that he was giving Steve a doubting look. But he left without comment after that.

Tony stood as Steve shut the door, blanket still over his head. "I take it that we don't get another couple of minutes?"

Clint didn't bother going back into the meeting room, he wasn't interested in listening to the Hulk's bitching when he realized that Clint hadn't pulled their missing teammates out of thin air. Instead, he waited in the hallway outside, watching for Steve and Tony.

The two of them were getting sloppy, they'd never have been so obvious a few months ago. If they didn't give up the charade soon, Clint was going to have to just tell them that their 'secret' was not as well kept as they seemed to think. The lack of effort was actually starting to become _insulting_.

Besides, if they didn't spit it out within a couple weeks, he was going to end up losing the betting pool.


End file.
